To the moon? Or Mars...

[JakeMD 107]

I read an interesting article featuring Bill Nye as a counterpoint to a LA Times News Reporter.  [Article]

NASA has been trying to come up with a way to get back to the moon to do studies on living in space for extended periods of time (years, possibly).  There is a debate out there to go to the moon and set up a moon base to do experiments and study living in space. 

Some are for a moon base, while others say skip the moon and go directly to Mars.  As Bill Nye said, many from the older generation ( Those that were around in 1969) may want to go back to the moon.  While those that are younger don't see a reason to because we were already there and need to push on.

My question to you is:

Should we go to the moon first, or go directly to Mars?

(And by the way.  This isn't a "We never went to the Moon" thread.  We can open up one of those later.)

[Duke87 1,070]

Sending peoiple to Mars, besides having a ton of feasability issues, would be a hell of a lot more expensive.

We may have been to the moon before, but only for brief visits. Setting up something more permanent there is a logical next step.

Not now, though. We don't have the money to throw at that sort of undertaking.

[Kryptowhite 9]

Like any exploration, its a good idea to explore an area first before you settle it. And we haven't even done enough on the moon yet really to settle it, for all we know there crab people living underground. So why would we even think about mars. Besides, as Duke said, we have some big problems here on earth right now with the economy, so i doubt anybody can get the money to build on mars.

Moon settlement would be exciting, although i doubt i'd want to be the one living on the moon.

[Explodingsims 3]

Moon is the best option right now.

Build a base there, then do your research for the next planet. Besides, wouldn't the moon be a better place to send rockets to Mars to than Earth?

I doubt this will happen any time soon though. There's better things to spend government money on.

And speaking of this topic, anyone seen the movie Moon? Apparently some of the things in it, like H-3 mining are something they're working on.

[Merlin of Flyote 8]

I think a base on the Moon is the next step as a stepping stone to Mars.

[JakeMD 107]

I agree with all of you.. The Moon would be the best place to create a sort of "hub" for spacecraft to land instead of worrying about Earth's gravity and atmosphere upon re-entering. The only problem would be refueling and bring supplies. This would require frequent visits from Earth, which in theory would be quite simple. What we should be focusing on right now is a way to set up a base on the Moon and be able to live there for at least [earth] 3-4 years. That would be about how long it would be to travel to Mars, do the experiments, and travel back.

[your_adress_here 11]

Lets build a huge bubble on the moon where people can go jump around in lower gravity.